Pages

Sunday, 6 May 2012

The Green Gobblin

Life's a bit of a rush most of the time and I've been searching for the ultimate speedy but nutritious way to break fast. If you commute to work you are probably looking at a 6.30am start every day, and if you're elbows deep in training for an event, you also need to get some trail or gym time in too. Finding the quickest way to get some valuable nutrients on board is a challenge.The question is: What constitutes a quick nutritious breakfast?By all accounts it's good to take on vegetables and protein in the morning. Be that as it may, the thought of ramming a load of cooked broccoli and a slab of beef down ones neck at 6 in the morning is just plain bonkers. Not to mention the fact that your missus doesn't really want to be woken up by a layer of burnt steak smoke. It's also true that fruit should be a part of your intake. Having said that fruit holds a lot of sugar and a smoothie can quite quickly ramp up the calorie quota. So, I've concentrated my search on a vegetable smoothie solution. It's taken a while but I've found it. The solution appeared via the book called 'Clean and Lean Cookbook' by James Duigan. As well as offering superb crap-free meals, the book offers up some great shakes. One of them is called "S&M Greens'. God knows what the S&M stands for but it's a good way to take on raw food. Admittedly it looks a little like the green goo that Rene Russo presented in The Thomas Crown Affair, but I've been supping this for 3 weeks now and by jimminy, it's ruddy fantastic. So here it is. I've added to the original recipe to get some more calories in and this is marked with an *.Handful of spinachHalf a green pepper*Handful of lettuce*Half an avocado*1 stalk of celery1/4 cucumberChunk of raw ginger (with skin cut off)Squeeze of lemonTablespoon of Wheat Grass powder*Teaspoon of Spirulina powder*50ml of beetroot juice (James White Beet It)*100ml water"What the dickens?" you're probably thinking "How can you say that this saves time?". Well I'm a sad bugger and I've timed it - it takes 5 minutes max. That's it. All you need is a food processor. Not an expensive one, a simple one like the pictures below - they all do the same damn job after all - it's just that some have posh buttons and plastic on them. Most importantly, DO NOT use a juicer. Juicers get rid of all the marvellous bits of pulp which is good for you. Chuck it all in, process it and drink the ruddy lot. Cost wise, it's not expensive either. An initially outlay for the powders but the rest of it should already be on your shopping list and all you have to do is replace that mahoosive chocolate bar with more green things.There you have it. I present to you 'THE GREEN GOBBLIN'. It tastes like shit but blimey, it makes you feel good the whole day, and you know you've got a fair few good food items into your system. (Add a bit of honey to make it taste a wee bit better.)